Gaolhouse Show As Tourist Trap

9 Mrs Marion Eveleigh in the old prison ot Cowbridge Town Hall. COWBRIDGE’a ancient past may hold the key to the town’s future prosperity. Gaolhouse show Locked away in the former 19th-century gaol is a treasure trove of ancient artefacts, which give a fascinating insight into life as tourist trap in and around Cowbridge from prehistoric times right on up to the days of the town’s Georgian, and council, the trust has produced a opens the doors of the gaolhouse Victorian splendour. range of car stickers and badges to the public. Now the custodians of the keys inviting people to “Come to The only other occasions when want to fill the gaolhouse with a Cowbridge” and carrying the the doors are thrown open are new breed of inmate — tourists. motif of the museum trust when parties of visitors ask for The Cowbridge Museum Trust Cowbridge museum is rather guided tours. has launched a new campaign to remarkable, not only because of The fact that it is not perma try and attract more tourists to the the fascinating exhibits and the nently manned and open does not town. fact that it is housed in a dungeon, deter the trust’s members from the They are basing their campaign but also because it opens only .belief that the museum could be on the attractions of the museum, once a month. come the focal point for an housed in the dungeons below the Every first Saturday of the active drive which would firmly town hall. month, curator and latter-day establish the name of Cowbridge With funding from the town warder Mrs Marion Eveleigh on the tourist map of Wales. Cheerfully incarcerated in the old cells of Cowbridge Town Hall: Mr. James Keay, Mrs. Marion Eveleigh (museum curator) and Mrs. Gwyneth Keay. In this picture-lined corridor of the museum (from left): Mr. Victor Eveleigh, Mrs. Nona Qinn, Mrs. Liam Ginn, Mr. Ray Toogood, Mrs. Barbara Hoi, ol the Historical Society, and Cowbridge Town Councillor Wilf Matthews. ° 7 d' “f.l-lonhoron, the man to first wear the chain in 1957 was There toTheTk >° C°WT[,id9? Rural District Cou™ ' And Mr. Jo m Cowbndge Town Hall. Caun. Jack George, left, de uty mr o r Srth VaTe h l 0rH The ^hai" Wl" 9° on deploy in the museur Manum Evele.gh, museum curator, Mr. John Roberts, chairman of the muselm trust add^riaht r ' r lc0med Mrs -------------- , mayor. Picture: CLIFFORD NORTON' ’ 9 ' ° Un' D°n Borthwlck- Cowbridgi ' Thurs^ y ^ December m THEIron Cowbridge mineand exhibition important role as a top- the mine and its impact District Museum Trust grade iron ore producer will open an exhibit on on the nearby village of during two world wars Llanharry. These are the once famous and its impact on the Llanharry Iron Mine, on backed up by a large British economy was photographic display of Saturday in its premises considerable. in the town hall, Cow- the mine, on surface and bridge. underground, and The exhibition depicts many of the The mine, which includes features on the closed in 1975, played an characters which geology and history of worked there. SOUTH WALES ECHO. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27. 1981 sits in a Cowbridge and her husband, Jimmy, police ceil today, wait put the final touches to a ing for deportation to lakmg a glimpse jailer's uniform at the Australia for a crime as museum. petty as stealing a rib manent," said Mrs Eveleigh, bon. of Broadway, Cowbridge. at a tough past She added that on Satur Her cell is as spartan as those in the early 19th Cen day the museum would be tury when prisoners — as society for a glimpse of old Keay, of Cae Caste!!, Uan- shows the trades and indus open from 10am until 4pm many as 15 in that one small Cowbridge. blethian. tries carried on in the area and then from 3pm until cell — would risk a pelting of And one of those cells has She and other society over the years. 8.30pm for that first week. mud and other substances been transformed to look like members have worked hard "Then we plan to open on Honorary curator of the the first Saturday of each through the barred window one dating back to the early to create the cell and the museum, Mrs Maria Eveleigh, from taunting youths in the 1800's when deportation was other two exhibitions for the month but it could well be said the exhibition — one of more often, depending on the pig market outside. the punishment for the smal new museum which opens on the smallest in Woles — was But don't worry, this lest offences — even for Saturday. interest," she explained. to be launched for Cowbridge And Mrs Eveleigh said any woman won't be making that women. Another of the cells con Week. She added that during long trip to near-slavery "Women would be tains a display of old Cow donations of objects of his next week the council torical interest from around "down under," for she is stay deported for things like steal bridge, some exhibits dating chamber would also feature ing in Cowbridge — as part of ing a ribbon. Women were in back to the Roman origins of the area would be welcomed some of the society's collec by the 80 or so members of the town's new museum. short supply in Australia and the town and others featuring tion. Three old police cells in the they would be virtual slaves aspects of the town through the society who would like to "We've set up exhibitions expand their collection to town hall have been taken once they arrived there," said the ages. before but this is the first over by the town's historical society member Mrs Gwyneth And the third display keep improving and changing time that it will be per- their new museum. ÛWBRIDGE’S C historic coun cil chamber in the town hall has a secret door leading from the aldermanic bench to the cold, stone cells beneath the building. ---- ... Many years ago the town hall was known as the “House of Correction” where judges sat at regular Glamorgan assizes. Prisoner! awaiting trial were confined in two blocks, each block con taining four cells. When about to appear before the judge they were marched along a stone corridor, which gave direct access to the court and into the dock. In about 1879, for some unknown reason, the solid oak-studded door which opened into the courtroom was permanently locked and concealed by a stone waM inside the chamber. The story*of its recent discovery was revealed by Coun. Norman Williams who is the mayor-elect ol the new Cowbridge Com munity Council. Coun. Williams, who works for an engineering firm at the Bridgenc Industrial Estate, said: “About two years ago' I started having the ole cells cleaned out as the} had been used for storagi purposes over the years. Hangings ” T h e building was originally sited in Higf Street, opposite the Duke of Wellington Hotel but because of a constani stream cí stage-côachŵ entering and leaving th( town, it was eventually knocked down and rehuil over the House of Correc tion about 1835. “The poor prisoner! were frog-marched iron the cells and even foi stealing a sheep would bi hanged from a tree a Stalling Down or shipped abroad. “The cells are man; hundreds of years old am one of thç sections wa locked up and full of junk We had it cleaned out am CARETAKER Mrs. Pamela Owen and tier v iite-washed. Then wi year-old daughter Mair look at the town hall’s discovered the heavy dooi secret door. at the end of the corridot iTTE, THURSDAY, JUNE 4 ,1 9 8 1 A deep look into a town’s past by Paula O'Shea DEEP down in the The society’s members Critical examination by offence, two hours for the damp cells of Cow- have been rummaging in Mrs Martlant made her second, and after the third bridge Town Hall lies their attics, and cadging off think the drum might be you were “let slip!” one of the town's their friends and relations rather special. She handed One cell of the museum for old artefacts to bring it over to Mr and Mrs Jim has been restored to its newest leisure attrac the past alive. Keay, of the Historical original state. The town tions — put on by local For two years they have Society. hall used to be the Bridewell, or the House of history enthusiasts. been gathering “It was broken and torn,” memorabilia, all with a Correction for the town. Visitors and residents said Mrs Gwynneth Keay, Before it was converted local angle, to exhibit in “somebody must have put can now go down into the their museum. into the hall in 1830, up to bowels of the town hall to their foot through it, 54 prisoners had to crowd take a look at the town’s Ithink! But my husband Opened into one cell. past in the new Cowbridge patched the original Mr and Mrs Kaey have museum, thanks to the ef And at the start of vellum, I washed and dressed tailors’ dummies to forts of the town’s Cowbridge Week, the polished it, and we dis represent a prisoner and Historical Society. covered an Edward The her gaoler. The police museum was officially Seventh crest. opened by the town Mayor, museum in the South Coun Brian Gibbon, down “We took it to the Wales Police Head in the refurbished cells.

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